The overwhelming popularity of mobile devices such as smart phones has opened up the possibility of using mobile devices and related communication infrastructure as a media for providing what may be referred to as “mobile marketing” to potential recipients. Mobile marketing involves and relates to marketing and advertising via mobile devices, e.g., mobile phones, smart phones, and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), or any other computer device configured to be able to receive or send data wirelessly, receiving promotional content, e.g., marketing and/or advertising content in the form of, e.g., text, audio, video or some combination thereof associated with a particular product, service or combination thereof.
More and more mobile devices are capable of browsing the Internet via a mobile network using various protocols including Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). WAP is an open international standard for application layer network communications in a wireless communication environment. Its main use is to enable access to the Internet from a mobile device. Thus, mobile devices capable of browsing the Internet include a WAP browser that provides all of the basic services of a computer based web browser but is simplified to operate within the restrictions of a mobile device, e.g., a smaller view screen than is generally available on a desktop computer. WAP sites are websites written in, or dynamically converted to, Wireless Markup Language (WML) and accessed via a mobile device's WAP browser.
In addition to mobile devices that use WAP, various mobiles are capable of providing access to Internet services using the devices' web browser. For example, many Nokia® mobile devices have web browsers that can be used to access any web page. In addition, mobile devices like Apple's iPhone® have an embedded Safari® browser for accessing any Internet page. Thus, it should be appreciated that WAP is only one example of the type of browsing conventionally provided via mobile devices.
Thus, if a mobile device has a WAP/Web browser, it can be used to access data services from Internet such as web browsing, reading documents, downloading music and videos, watching TV, downloading pictures, uploading information, electronic mail, using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), etc.
Billing for mobile network services including WAP/Web implemented browsing of the Internet can be implemented in various ways from business point of view. Some mobile network service providers (e.g., network operators, carriers, etc.) offer fixed cost plans wherein a mobile user can access network resources as much as they want during a specified period of time. Alternatively, some mobile network service providers offer a specified amount of network resources, e.g., a certain amount of megabytes at a fixed price; still others offer such a fixed price with the option to purchase additional resource access at a specified rate. As a further alternative, some carriers simply charge a fixed rate per megabyte. As a result, the cost of browsing using one's mobile device can be significant for a mobile device user.